On Monday, October 7, 2024, we were all gripped by the video, shared on social media, of a Congolese woman. Her message: I have had no news of my daughter Alexandra, 21 years old, a student in Trois-Rivières, since Wednesday, October 2. Please help me find her.
With social media carrying it along, the news gathered momentum, and the police became involved. The search went on until the announcement, on Tuesday, October 8, that a body had been found in the river by a kayaker and that it was said to be the body of the missing young woman, the Congolese Alexandra. This news plunged the entire African community into deep sorrow and, beyond that, into an anxiety that raises several questions, most of which will unfortunately remain unanswered, forever.
Beyond all these mixed feelings, it is a whole generation of African mothers, African fathers and young Africans who are wondering whether Canada is still a safe country.
Indeed, the idea of a safe country where you can send your children has always appealed to parents, pushing them to invest staggering sums in their children’s education in Canada. Yet the news teaches us that, of late, safety is not what several international students here have been given. In the same context as Alexandra’s death, two students in Moncton also lost their lives; another was murdered in Toronto in a shooting. May their souls rest in peace!
Faced with all these grim scenes, which bring sorrow, shock and desolation, there is reason to question ourselves about some very real concerns:
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- - Are international students still safe here, in Canada?
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- - Are these losses of human life the work of chance, or could they be the result of a scheme?
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- - Is this a veiled form of systemic racism?
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- - Why are investigations not always pushed through to a clear and objective elucidation of the circumstances surrounding the deaths?
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- - And, by extrapolation, are we, Afro-descendants, generally speaking, still welcome here on Canadian soil?
These questions, framed in this way, represent an emotional and psychological burden that some young people have to carry every single day, whether they are walking across their campus, going out for a jog in the area around the
universities, or simply taking the elevator.
We are also entitled to wonder whether the Canadian press truly takes this societal problem seriously. Indeed, the day after Alexandra’s story, I learned from a media outlet whose name I will keep to myself that the number of followers on the Trois-Rivières police Facebook page had risen from 11,000 to 15,000.
I was literally taken aback. I said to myself: “With the loss of a human life and the anxiety of a whole generation of parents and students, the most edifying thing you can find to mention is the number of followers on a Facebook page?” In all honesty, it is revealing of the consideration granted to this subject.
In any event, the losses of human life we are seeing in the Afro-Canadian community, on top of the usual problems students run into in terms of finances, the search for housing and work, and emotional stability, as well as the uncertainty tied to immigration documents, have ended up casting a deep discredit on Canada.
All in all, we are going through a phase in which an Afro-Canadian imaginary is breaking apart. That dream we once held of Canada keeps withering away, giving ground to the taking root of a deep apprehension about the living conditions of young students in Canada. Even though applications for admission and for study permits keep pouring in, there is an urgent need to find a lasting solution by further strengthening the safety of young Afro-descendants across the country. Otherwise, we will end up building a society with wounds so deep and divisions so pronounced that we will not be able to win the wager of building a just, free, equitable, peaceful and prosperous society where life is good.
M. Z.
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